Swiss reject Polanski extradition request

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 9:30 am on July 12, 2010

The Swiss have rejected the American extradition request for Roman Polanski and have ended his house arrest. The apparent reason? They couldn’t be certain that there wasn’t a fault somewhere in the official request:

The 76-year-old French-Polish film director Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the USA. The freedom-restricting measures against him have been revoked. This announcement was made by Mrs Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, head of the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP), in Berne on Monday. The reason for the decision lies in the fact that it was not possible to exclude with the necessary certainty a fault in the US extradition request, although the issue was thoroughly examined. Moreover, also the principles of State action deriving from international public order were taken into account.

At the end of 2005 the US authorities issued an international search warrant against Roman Polanski due to sexual offence against a minor committed in 1977. On the basis of this international order of arrest, Roman Polanski was arrested on 26th September 2009 upon his arrival at the airport of Zürich and taken into provisional custody pending extradition. On 22nd October 2009 the US authorities filed a formal extradition request. On 4th December Roman Polanski was released from custody after depositing a 4.5 million franc bail and was granted house arrest under electronic monitoring in his chalet in Gstaad.

Let’s parse this a moment, shall we? The Swiss point to no fault in the request. In fact, they admit it was “thoroughly examined.” Instead of acting on an extradition request that admittedly had no apparent fault, the Swiss refused because it might have a fault. Somewhere.

What, are Swiss lawyers that incompetent? Are their jurists that unintelligent? By that standard, the entire legal system in Switzerland should be dismantled, its employees sent to remedial school, and perhaps the government should resign in favor of an absolute monarchy. Assuming, of course, that anyone with an IQ above 70 can be found to hold the office.

Of course, this is not the case. Switzerland just didn’t want to turn Polanski over to the US for fear of falling out of favor with the entertainment industry, and the EuroLeft that adores the child rapist Polanski. When they couldn’t come up with a good reason, they had to claim that the lack of a good reason was reason enough to reject the request.

If Switzerland likes child rapists so much, perhaps we should send them more of ours.

Update: My friend Brant points out in the comments that “pederast” has a specific meaning regarding the victims; they’re boys, not girls. I’ve changed the term out for “child rapist,” which is more accurate.